June 4: A Sagittarian Lunar Eclipse

 Road with Cypress and Star

by Vincent van Gogh (1890)

With the Moon of the June 4th lunar eclipse positioned at 14 Sagittarius the ‘very idea of it all!’ becomes a point of emotionality. For some, that will mean delight, for others this won’t be their most delightful, delighted or otherwise delectable day.

14 Sagittarius is considered a degree all about intelligence. But it’s not what you know or your capacity to know it here which counts…it’s what you DO with what you know which is the wholly big deal.

So don’t think you have to be Einstein to shine in your own mind or the eyes of others. That’s just not the case!

A handful of modifiers on the Moon’s side of this Full Moon…(all lunar eclipses are full moons)…Hidalgo points to the manner or ‘mannerism’ involved – which for some (depending on what you’re involved in) means “protocols.”

So you don’t have to be brilliant, you just have to ‘do’ what you do well or brilliantly to take on the sheen of this high water Full Moon.

Then we add Nemesis. Nemesis is the person who stands up and, despite knowing they’re doing the unpopular thing, announces what will happen if everyone behaves like lemmings and runs off a cliff. So maybe your touch of rising to the fore is pointing out some flaw in the plan?

Or maybe…just maybe this is about the proverbial light bulb coming upon you as you realize that someone (or some moment) which was unpopular with you ‘then’ (Nemesis warnings by definition are never popular!)….weeeeelllll…. maybe you’re realizing that unpopular or not, the warning was right?

One more crayon to add to the box here: my favorite Plutino, Ixion. Since if nothing else Ixion carries a theme of ‘repetitiveness,’ this light bulb (or lightning strike) may be your making the same mistake yet again or your finally seeing that some error in the manner in which you're doing something or thinking something (Hidalgo) is what's been tripping you up.

(That being true, take a V8 juice from petty cash.)

 Lightning strikes Denver, Colorado

photo credit: Retractor (June 2004)

There is, however, a problem with Ixion being in this picture. That’s because Ixion is at core the idea of the ‘repeating bad act’ which we will hope is not you…but which well may be you.

And yes, this could be as simple as cheating on your diet. (Who is it that you’re cheating? Wouldn’t that be …uh, you?) Then again, it could be stealing from your own company. (Who are you stealing from? Wouldn’t that be…uh, you?)

Whatever the Ixion influence, the issue really becomes how we harm ourselves through repetitive cycles of doing the same thing. We may harm others in the process…then again, we may only do injury to ourselves or, since this is Sagittarius, our reputation.

So this could be a time when some issue you thought had faded into the background suddenly rears up to bite you.

On the Sun’s side of this figure we have an interesting group…Aldebaran (integrity) at 9 Gemini, TNO Chaos (endless possibilities) at 15 Gemini and Rigel (the teacher) at 17 Gemini.

(Oh, I think I hear a theme!)

Gemini being a sign about our mentality, the way we think, our ideas and (in the end) our choices and priorities, the Sun presented here in an emotionally evocative degree represents the ‘bringing to light’ of some sort of information or realization.

I’d say ‘happy days’ but this is more likely to be a happy, snappy or even crappy daze, depending.

With the Sun positioned between Royal Star Aldebaran and Rigel, there’s a definite aura of 'need’ to get something right – or to get right with something, or maybe someone. The Sun is at 14 Gemini here and the Nodes are at 5 Sagittarius (North) and 5 Gemini (South), so this eclipse is not quite as far away from the nodes as you can get and have an eclipse (that would be fifteen degree) but it’s definitely not a chummy conglomeration PLUS both Sun and Moon are moving away from the node.

All and all, this looks like our ‘parting from the crowd,’ which actually works well if what you’re doing is exhibiting some power of your mind or even leaving some job because you’ve found something better to do with your life and time.

(Caution: this is still Venus retrograde, so don’t be thinking anything is going to be nirvana.)

Plus let’s be real…this eclipse also features Mars at 16 Virgo. And why do we care about Mars at 16 Virgo? For those of you astrology students, that would be – yes – because Mars at 16 Virgo is at the half-way point between Sun and Moon, turning this eclipse into a t-square.

Oh joy, oh rapture…which back in dinosaur times would have no doubt been oh joy, oh raptor…but that’s a whole other thing. (Yes, I am the Jurassic Astrologer. Thanks for noticing.)

So the rules for t-squares…as I sit here twiddling my thumbs (which makes it harder to type) I ponder this Mars thing and, since all t-square confront us with the necessity to “get over ourselves” (i.e. our ego), this one would seem to be about the necessity to DO something instead of just pontificating about it or insisting you know how.

All you delegators and procrastinators be forewarned: you may get told to put up or shut up about now.

(Yes, Venus is retrograde. People are feeling annoyed, feisty and aggrieved – which isn’t a name of some nasty law firm, even if it sounds like it - lol!)

Virgo is the sign about knowing how, refining our methods, making things work, coloring inside the moral bounds and – oh yes – those sworn to do a duty (soldiers, employees, civil servants, etc.). So while it may be easy to finger point, the real point is that if you’ll just apply the logic and skill you have to whatever the issue is, you’ll do a whole lot better than otherwise.

And for those who don’t? Well, let’s just say that Lunar Eclipses are well known emotional periods. With Mars involved, this could turn into a pretty feisty, even brutal debate.

And yes, we’ll hope it’s just a debate. 14 Gemini has a reputation for trickery and dishonesty, so…are you having a trick played on you? Is some trick which has been played on you now coming to light? Are you realizing you’ve been tricked into doing something?

There are all sorts of ‘scales’ to such things of course…this June 4th eclipse might be a great day to spring a surprise party on someone. That’s a trick – but a fun one! Then again, this might be a time to be particularly aware of who you’re dealing with and whether they’re on the up-and-up with you.

And there is a chance that you will very blatantly (at least to others) not be watching out for yourself…that you may not have learned your lesson about something? Or that you might be digging yourself  into an ever-deepening hole – most of all with-or-in your own mind?

Like I said…Venus is still retrograde – we’re all prone to feeling very unlovable, even in our own regard!

Just to make this a little MORE exotic (as if it needed to be…?) there is also the fact that asteroid Niobe is sitting at 15 Pisces, turning this whole t-square affair into something of a Grand Cross. Certainly if you have any planet, node or axis point in the 11-19 Pisces district you should consider yourself in Grand Cross territory with this eclipse, which means yes – you could get ‘grandly crossed’ by others. More likely is the idea that your head could be spinning, what with the nineteen hundred things you need to do and give a little thought to.

The t-square here is validated. And if you have planets, axis points or nodes between 11 and 19 Virgo, you’re on the Mars end of this affair and frustration and critique and getting over what you have to do or need to learn how to do or summon the chutzpah to get done…those would be your challenges.

Above all, don’t flake out. Don’t think that if you ignore something it’ll go away. It might not hinder you for a while, but then like a malignant cancer it’ll do some seriously significant damage to life and livelihood.

And a note here to those of the astrologically-trained ilk here: why am I tightening the normal 5-degree orb on Mars? That’s because the rest of the t-square is based at 14 Gemini/Sag. So add five to 14…that’s 19.

But that doesn’t mean that if you have a planet (axis point, node) at 20 or 21 Virgo I would say you’re getting off Scott-free. This is sort of a ‘sucker punch’ effect which says you can get sucked into difficulties now even though you may not be ‘part’ of them per se.

Also…a last tasteful note before we go back to Grand Crosses to finish up. Medea is sitting at 13 Virgo (obviously conjunct Mars and VERY much t-square the eclipse) in this figure. So the act of loving something too much is a path to self-undoing here.

With Mercury (ruler of Virgo) in Gemini and conjunct Byblis (the attempt to defend the indefensible) I could go on and talk about how it’s plainly the thing in you which you don’t want to tackle because it’s just so uncomfortable which is getting in your way but…naw, I won’t say that.

Yes, it’s true. But I won’t say it. Free free to admit it if you dare (you’ll thank yourself later if you do) but I’m not going to be pushy here.

(Who me, pushy?)

Getting back to that Grand Cross thing…because we’re seeing an asteroid (Medea) filling out the fourth side of the cross – what would be why I’m not calling this a Grand Cross for sure, for everybody, for better or worse. Those with planets in the named Pisces zone? Yes – your chart is filling in this side of things and you had best watch the pride thing, lest it get you shot down.

(In other words, no gloating. I don’t care how much you want to – resist, lest Aunt Karma come and give you such a pain that you’ll be aching long past forever.)

 Medea, about to murder her own children

painting by Ferdinand Victor Delacroix (1862)

Asteroids have mass, yes. But they aren’t full fledged planets. Dwarf planets are dwarf planets because they have sufficient mass…and it’s one of those ultra-interesting parts of physics that once something ‘out there’ has enough mass, it tends to ‘spin’ itself into more or less a globe – and it’s a combination of these factors which divides the full fledged planets from the dwarf planets. Generally, I mean.

So anyway…Medea being an asteroid, there is some ‘undercurrent’ of a Grand Cross for everybody. So even if all is going just fine, dandy and nifty-swell, someone’s brain will get a stubbed toe or mental hangnail which needs tending to. There will be details upon details.

But what do we expect from a Sagittarian Lunar Eclipse? Sagittarius is a ‘busy’ sign to be sure – and lunar eclipses are filled to the brim, usually with emotion, but maybe sometimes occasionally with so much stuff to do or consider or make sense of that you get to feeling emotional.

And there is that One Other Thing, of course.

What other thing?

That would be the ‘little thing’ we talked about in our last post. Hardly will this lunar eclipse have gone off (at 11:13 a.m. UT/+0) when Neptune goes retrograde.

 Planet Neptune

photo credit: NASA-JPL

Yes, that little thing: the fact that we don’t quite know how anything is going to turn out.

Maybe the answer is to count our blessings?

Yes, maybe. It couldn’t hurt!